British Jewish Leaders Agree To Meet With Labour Party Head Jeremy Corbyn
Image by Getty Images
(JTA) — British Jewish community leaders agreed to meet with embattled Labour Party head Jeremy Corbyn to discuss anti-Semitism in the party ranks.
In a letter sent Wednesday to Corbyn, Jonathan Arkush, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and Jonathan Goldstein, chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, thanked Corbyn “for the commitment you have made to addressing the anguish amongst many people in the Jewish community over the issue of anti-Semitism within the Labour Party.”
The Jewish leaders also made clear in the letter that, while they agree that Labour’s new General Secretary, Jennie Formby, should take part in any meeting, fighting against anti-Semitism in the party will require Corbyn, as its head, to “use your own personal authority as leader of the Labour Party to drive the changes required and to ensure that there will be significant, timely and measurable progress on the issues we laid out in our letter of the 28th March.”
In that open letter to the Labour Party Jewish leaders declared that “enough is enough,” and that Corbyn is “repeatedly found alongside people with blatantly anti-Semitic views.” The party has come under fire for harboring anti-Semitic members and leaders. Corbyn has vowed to kick out any Labour member caught making racist or anti-Semitic statements. Dozens were expelled but many others accused of these actions were allowed to stay or were readmitted.
Corbyn has been calling for a meeting with Jewish leaders for more than a week, since about 2,000 people gathered outside the houses of Parliament in London to protest anti-Semitism in the British Labour Party. Corbyn had published a written apology prior to the march. Jewish groups had previously refused a meeting with Corbyn, until he said that he had plans to discuss regarding combatting the anti-Semitism.
No date or place has been set for the meeting.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
